Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Blackberry Peach Plum Cobblerrumble

Sometimes it's really hard to eat all of the things. The fruit things especially. I bought a giant container of plums last weekend, only to be kind of sort of really disappointed at how bland/tart they turned out to be. I slogged my way through them as best I could this past week, but I know myself well enough to know that pitted against the market's latest bounty of fresh fruit, these lack-luster plums would probably whither in the fridge if they didn't get used up soon. As in, immediately.


I couldn't resist throwing in some of the aforementioned bounty, creating a fabulous  late-summer fruit cobblerumble. 

Cobblerrumble? Yes, about that...




There is, as I learned, a difference between a cobbler and a crumble. Unfortunately my impatience got the better of me, and my crumble topping got hand-mashed into a dough. After freezing it, the dough crumbled into chunks. The recipe outlines how the crumble topping is supposed to come out, but know that if you, too, get impatient the topping will be still be delicious. And on top of it all, I got to invent a pretty catchy portmanteau (if I do say so myself). So. Are you ready to cobblerrumble?!


Blackberry Peach Plum Cobblerrumble

Ingredients

For the topping:
½ c. almond meal
¼ c. all-purpose flour
½ c. light brown sugar
¾ c. rolled oats
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ c. cold butter (1 stick)
Pinch of salt

For Filling:
2 large peaches
½ pint blackberries, cut in half
6-7 small purple or red plums
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1½  TBSP all-purpose flour
2 TBSP of brown sugar (add an additional TBSP if you prefer a sweeter filling)
juice of half a small lemon, or lime
1 tsp. of cinnamon
a of dash allspice or nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

To prepare the filling, first pit your stone fruits and cut them into bite-sized slices. In a large bowl combine the peaches, plums, halved blackberries, vanilla extract, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice or nutmeg, and citrus juice. Carefully toss the fruits so that they are evenly coated. Set aside.


For the topping, combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. With a fork or pastry cutter, cut in the 1/2 cup of butter by the tablespoon until your topping looks like pea sized crumbles. I got impatient and dumped the whole half cup of butter in at once, which created a bit globby butter mess. I ended up going in with my fingers, warmed the butter, and got one lump of dough rather than crumbles. Like I said above, if this happens don't panic! Stick the bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes, and it'll crumble into clumps again.



Pour the fruit filling into an 8x8 baking dish. Sprinkle your crumble (or clumps) evenly over top. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until filling is gorgeous and bubbly. 


I couldn't wait for this to cool before digging in. The filling turned out thick and juicy, the perfect balance of sweet and tart. An excellent reason to buy fresh plums from your local market! My singular regret about this creation that I lacked the forethought to buy a pint of vanilla ice cream to go with it.